TheFonz
Rookie
Posts: 220
Political Matrix E: 8.00, S: -6.26
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« on: December 08, 2019, 10:57:55 PM » |
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Let me preface this by saying I'm a textualist originalist first, and a Libertarian second. Partially for practical reasons, but primarily because in my view, any other reading of the law (from the Constitution on down) simply cuts the legs out from it, and leaves the door wide open for judicial abuse. The law means nothing when it can be creatively "interpreted" to mean whatever a judge wants it to mean.
There are several issues where my political beliefs are contrary to what the Constitution allows for. That puts me in the sane category as 99.999% of people. But as a nation of laws, with the Constitution being the supreme source of law, when this happens we must defer to or amend the Constitution.
Both sides are guilty of this, though I believe "conservatives" are to a lesser extent. Y'all can disagree with me. That's fine, but it's not what this thread is about.
So here's my question for small government, textualist originalist Trump supporters. Specifically supporters of Trump's immigration policies.
Can you point me to the line in the Constitution that gives the federal government the authority to regulate immigration? You can't explicitly, because it's simply not there. The word immigration doesn't appear anywhere in the Constitution, nor does an allusion to it. The only thing that's close is the responsibility to regulate naturalization. But neutralization means citizenship, not immigration.
In fact, both Jefferson and Madison, the paragons of textualist ideology, wrote extensively that the power to regulate immigration should be left to the states, not the federal government. In Jefferson's view, if California wants to open their border and let all of Mexico come in, they should be able to do so. But if those people hop the border from California to Arizona, Arizona can deport them.
Madison, who actually wrote the Constitution (and is, therefore, the ultimate authority on the "original meaning") agrees with Jefferson's assessment.
How then do you square originalism with federal border enforcement?
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